Passenger safety is one of the major concerns with designing a modern vehicle such as e.g. passenger cars. The forces placed on occupants of a vehicle during a collision event may be large enough to lead to serious or fatal injury. Modern vehicles are often equipped with an airbag on the driver's side, which deploys during serious collisions. Most vehicles have this airbag located in a compartment near the centre of the steering wheel.
In some modern vehicles, the steering column will also move forward in a controlled manner, i.e. displacing the steering wheel in the forward direction of the vehicle during a collision event. This will accomplish, among other things, a reduction of force on the driver, both in cases where the airbag deploys as normal, supplementing the airbag.
An issue with the displacement of the steering column is that it may impact the instrument cluster during its displacement, the collection of meters and other indicators most often located above the steering column in the dashboard. This may reduce the benefit during collision as the instrument cluster may hinder forward movement of the steering column (which may lead to the force reduction on the driver not being sufficiently low). Additionally, the force may damage or shatter the instrument cluster, leading to costly repairs and/or debris from the cluster being scattered inside the vehicle posing additional risk to the occupants.
US 2009/0085338 A1 discusses a vehicle instrument panel structure ensuring a frontward displacement of the steering column during collision. The instrument panel structure is arranged to detach the instrument cluster when a steering column cover contacts the cluster, and push the meter unit upwardly. This allows the steering mechanism to be displaced towards the front of the vehicle.
WO 00/17035 A1 discloses a dashboard arrangement with a steering mechanism which is adapted to be displaced towards the dashboard. A section of the dashboard is connected to a pyrotechnic removal member, which is arranged to pull the section away from the steering wheel along guides during collision.
While the solutions found in the prior art work well in some situations, there is still room in the vehicle field for an improved collision control solution.